Court jails former Ghana officials who bought NSO’s Pegasus
An Accra High Court presided over by Justice Eric Kyei
Baffour has found former government officials guilty of causing financial loss
to the State and sentenced them to various prison terms, in the matter of
purchasing the Pegasus hardware produced by the Israeli company, NSO.
The officials, are a former Director-General and former
Board Chairman of the National Communications Authority (NCA), and a former
National Security Coordinator.
The former Director-General of the NCA, William Tetteh Tevie
was given a five-year jail term, Eugene Baffoe-Bonnie, the Board Chairman
received a six-year sentence and Salifu Osman, a former National Security
Coordinator got five years.
The fourth accused in the case, Nana Owusu Ensaw, a former
Board member of the NCA filed an appeal and had a ruling in his favour leading
to his discharge.
The fifth accused, George Derick Oppong, former Director of
Infralocks Development Limited (IDL), the loacl rep of NSO was acquitted and
discharged.
The court further ordered the Attorney-General to seize
assets belonging to the convicted persons estimated to be worth $3 million.
The case has been in court since 2017.
The convicts were charged among others for stealing, using
public office for personal gains, and willfully causing financial loss to the
state in respect of the purchase of the Pegasus hardware worth $4 million,
which they said was to be used to fight terrorism.
According to the Auditor-General’s Report for 2018, the NCA
bought the equipment at the request of National Security. From court reports,
the hardware was delivered, but the software wasn’t.
Curiously, the facts of the purchase weren’t known until the
former officials of the NCA were put before court.
In a July 2019 interview, Angela Quintal, the Africa
Coordinator for Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), told
ghanabusinessnews.com: “Given the documented use of NSO Group technology
against journalists, any intention to acquire Pegasus spyware or similar
surveillance systems is cause for concern.
“Ghanaian authorities’ failure to adequately prioritise
press freedom and ensure accountability for attacks against journalists make
these concerns all the more justified.”
What is the Pegasus software?
Some five years ago, tech researchers at Citizen Lab, a
group focused on the intersection of technology and information security found
that a malware called Pegasus, which was bought from an Israeli company called
NSO Group, was used to target journalists and activists in some cases.
According to Citizen Lab, Pegasus is able to jailbreak
devices and spy on victims. It is described as the most sophisticated attack
seen on any endpoint because it takes advantage of how integrated mobile
devices are in people’s lives and the combination of features only available on
mobile such as always connected (Wi-Fi, 3G/4G), voice communications, camera,
email, messaging, GPS, passwords, and contact lists.
When NSO scaled up its operations, the number of Pegasus
servers that Citizen Lab detected in its scans grew from about 200 in 2016 to
almost 600 in 2018. Most of the countries using them were Middle Eastern and
Gulf countries. They were using them to track dissidents. One of the dissidents
that was targeted by the spyware was UAE activist Ahmed Mansoor. He was
targeted in 2016. There was an Amnesty International staffer and Saudi activist
who was also targeted in June 2018.
Researchers concluded that the global proliferation of
Pegasus paints a bleak picture of human-rights risks.
Pegasus and the murder of Jamal Khashoggi
On October 2, 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist
critical of the Saudi royals was brutally murdered and his body dismembered in
the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, where he had gone to obtain papers to
allow him to marry.
A six-month investigation, and a 100-page report by the UN
special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, Agnes Callamard, accused Saudi
Arabia of a “deliberate, premeditated execution”.
In December 2018, however, a Saudi dissident close to
murdered Khashoggi, Omar Abdulaziz filed a lawsuit claiming that an Israeli
software company helped the Saudi authorities to take over his smartphone and
spy on his communications with Khashoggi.
A report by The Jerusalem Post citing the New York Times,
indicated that Israeli software company NSO Group designed and sold software to
the Saudi government that directly led to the death of Jamal Khashoggi.
In the lawsuit filed by Abdulaziz, he said his WhatsApp
messages with Khashoggi were intercepted by the government and used to justify
Khashoggi’s killing.
In messages obtained by CNN, Khashoggi called Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman a “beast” who eats his victims and oppresses citizens, the
report said.
The report stated further that, Israel considers the
“Pegasus” spyware a weapon and requires NSO Group to obtain approval from the
Defense Ministry to sell it. Saudi Arabia spent $55 million on the software in
2017.
According to court reports, the NCA paid $4 million for what
it says is cyber security equipment, which it bought through an apparent local
representative of NSO, known as Infralocks Development Limited.
The 2018 Auditor-General’s report says the NCA paid $4
million to Infralocks Development Limited for the supply of cyber security
equipment not supported with requisite documentation. The report indicated that
the bank transfer correspondence between the NCA and Ecobank GH Ltd dated
February 9, 2016 requested the transfer of sums totalling $4,000,000.00 from
NCA’s dollar account to Infralocks Development Limited’s Account held at the
Ecobank Head Office for the supply of cyber security equipment.
“However, there was no documentation to provide details of
the transaction apart from the official correspondence effecting the transfer,”
it added.
The alarming notoriety of Pegasus, compelled David Kaye, the
US special rapporteur on freedom of expression to call on the world to impose a
moratorium on the sale and use of surveillance software until there are rules
in place to stop governments from using it to spy on opponents and critics.
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